I have a soft spot for 8 tracks, they actually work very well once the cartridges are serviced. The best way to think of them is as a 1/4 inch reel to reel tape connected in a continuous loop inside a plastic shell. The tape speed is 3-3/4 inches per second so twice as fast as a compact cassette, so the fidelity is actually better if everything is working correctly.
Fidelity actually better? Better than cassettes manufactured late 60's to mid 70's, maybe, contemporary to 8 track's heyday. But later on tape formulation improved on the cassette format more than it did on the 8 track one (if it improved on the later at all), and that more than compensated the speed difference.
@@BilisNegra ...And that's exactly why 8-Tracks flourished during the period you describe. Cassette didn't start to sound good until they got better formulations and more advanced electronics. And, of course, even once they did, there were still a lot of people with big collections of 8-Tracks, which mean they were still buying 8-Track players, which meant they were still buying 8-Tracks when it came to music for the car. The tipping point, the mid-1970s, was right about the time their tapes and players were starting to wear out, and new 8-track tapes and equipment was cheap and nasty. As Oleg stated, 8-Tracks could sound pretty good if maintained. The problem was, few people DID.
That Jim Croce tape that you put in there it sounds like it just been recorded the problem is with these kids nowadays they don't know who Jim Croce is
This is an old video, but fun fact for vintage audio enthusiasts on these mid 70's to early 80's Soundesign built consoles. They built them for a bunch of different companies at the time and would just change the aluminum trim piece on the back top border to have that companies brand name on them. Certain companies might have had exclusive cabinets, but the only branding change was that trim piece. Also Soundesign is still in business, but they go by SDI technologies these days and pretty much mainly market the iHome brand of smart speaker products.
my mom's sister had one just like they were sold at Western Auto a long time ago in a land far away😪💯👏❤ they were cheap but they sounded good and it is something still really nice to have in your room or your house🥳👏 hope you don't throw it away👌🏼 it had great Bass.
you always have such wonderful and interesting things to show us....you always explain thing so good its a pleasure to listen to you...its always good to watch you tinker with stuff and i love what you think of crosley record players....i have one but i dont use it ....i bought a wonderful steers 77 awhile ago from one of the guys on youtube i play it for hrs and hrs everyday its built like a tank... i look foward to see more of your stuff thankyou....
Soundesign and it's sister brand Realtone were low end quality stuff back in the late 60's and the 70's. I had a Soundesign bookshelf system briefly in the early 70's and it's tuner was terribly insensitive and prone to overload from a local FM station. I returned it to the store and got a display model Panasonic system for the same price. I have no regrets there, it was when Panasonic made quality stuff in Japan.
These console stereos were mostly owned by older people that were born in 20s and 30s which is why you find mostly gospel tapes and albums in these. Anyone that was into rock and roll usually wouldn't be caught dead with one of these console stereos, these were mostly great stereos though
That's some small speakers in that console. My mother had a console made by Electrophonic. It had twelve inch woofers and also midrange speakers and tweeters. I remember it had a lot of bass. It was so big.
2:50 Lot's of air; too bad they couldn't have made some of it available for record storage. One thing I've always said in defense of these things is that they sounded better than the "compact" table-top versions sold at the time with those awful tall, wide, shallow speaker enclosures. And with the speakers firing out the sides, there was as much stereo separation as most people get with separate speakers; modern TV and boombox makers could learn a bit from that. Plastic-fantastic!
A BSR that runs at the proper speed. A rare find indeed. That head unit might actually be ok if paired with larger efficient speakers and the power transformer upgraded so that the voltage don't sag under load. It's been my experience that a lot of the cheap consoles suffered from a power supply just enough to do the job and crappy speakers. Other than the plastic platter and most of the BSR record changers I've had dealings with running slightly too fast they are actually pretty decent changers for those who just want something to play their records on.
After CD's Came out I Ditched All Cassettes & 8 Tracks wen I Found Out I Was Able To Purchas CD's With All Those Country Songs On Them. Then In December Of 1996 I Got A Pioneer Stereo With A 25 Disc CD Changer Player For Christmas. & That's Wen I Bought The Timelife Classic Country Collection. I Dont Have The Stereo Now. But Nor The Timelife Classic Country Collection. But I Went On Amazon & Picked Up A Whole Crap Load Of Timelife Classic Country CD's. I Have More Of Those Then I Did Wen I Did Wen I Was Living At My Mom's If She Could See All The Timelife Classic Country CD's I Have Now Boy She'd Love That. Cause She Just Loved Classic Country Music. She Liked Hank William's Lefty Frizell Web Peirce Ray Price kitty Wells Ect.
I was waiting for smoke to start coming out when Stevie and the 80;s rock began, and Motown to catch fire, you know how those Gospel Consoles are about secular "Devil Worship" music,,,Hallelujah!!!
Alot of times you could connect quality extension speakers to the back ot these and get "4D" (four dimension) sound. That helped out the anemic console speakers a lot. The amps in these are quite good at lower volumes.
... and also because consoles usually get put out for yard sales before they end up in thrift stores and on the curb. Yard sales where the record collections get picked through, and all the 'good stuff' gets snatched up by collectors, even though the terribly large 'old school' stereos get ignored.
This was really interesting to watch, you certainly got a good deal buying this for 25 dollars, i noticed you said you are not worrying about the lid to much, i might caution you if you dont already know it that the lid can suddenly come down on your head with no warning, i have a Philco stereo from the early 60s and it is made of real wood, and the lid will come down on my head if i do not hold the lid while i am tuning or adjusting something,and beleave me it hurts, hope this info helps you.
Big cabinet tends to resinate more then a small one giving extra bass. It was also a way for the company to justify its cost. Usually older people purchased these and needed room for pictures and a lamp. I like 70's stereos. They are so awful yet so much fun. Always work. Mine has a fireplace and a bar in it. 8 track tapes rule. A lot of the time the cross talk proplem is caused from pushed in pressure pads on the tape. When adjusting the head, first make sure you have a good pads on the tape.
I'd be happy to find bluegrass gospel. Bluegrass just seems hard to find in general. That and badass old time music like Jimmie Rogers "the father of country music". The stuff he sang was very Rock and Roll.
Hey. I’m trying to restore a truetone that I picked up. Can you give me any pointers? We’ve checked things with a voltage meter and found the bad parts. We’re just not sure how to remove them or where to get them.
I had a console stereo that looked just like that. The only difference was that the speakers where mounted to the front and not the sides. It was a Montgomery Ward Airline.
Because the newest carts are often 30+ years old, the glue on the spices dries out and the can fall off, usually shortly after it crosses the contacts for the track changing solenoid, Columbia carts have the worst splices, RCAs the best. If you are very unlucky the spice will come off half way through the tape's travel causing a giant hairball.
The two weak spots was the splice and an intolerance for any dirt or foreign matter getting on the tape as it disrupts the movement of the tape. The best ones use felt pads and a silica bronze spring, many of the others use a foam pad which usually rots and falls apart. When the foam falls apart sometimes it gets sticky and works it's way onto the tap causing problems. Some others suffer from rotting pinch rollers, Ampex and GRT carts often have this problem, though not all.
On some rare 8-tracks, when they break at the seam (which is the track change foil), I've gone as far as to un-spool them, setup two turntables a 7-inch reel & hand wind them back together. If you do it backwards, you gotta start all over. Hours of fun. Then burn to a CD, sound file, or whatever, quick. P.S. Can't believe memory did not tell me that was Donna Summer on the 45...
Cassy must be YOUR dog as she seems to ALWAYS be in your videos, LOL! What was the 2nd to the last 45 you played? I like that one & don't think I have it! So not gonna EOL this one, huh? LOL! When I was growing up, our family stereo in the living room (which my Mom bought new from Gamble's dept. store) was a "Early American Dry Sink" cabinet Morse-brand AM/FM/8-Track/Phono w/ BSR changer & side-firing 8" full-range speakers with whizzer cones & that thing actually didn't sound too bad as I recall & my Mom had ALL of Jimmy Swaggart's 8-tracks & I grew up hearing them all the time playing in our house, LOL! Yeah, That stereo held up over the years great until I hooked 50' of speaker wire to the "B" speaker outputs so I could have music outside & it fried the outputs (with the resistance of 50' of thin "speaker wire" and the 12" speakers I hooked to the end of them was too much for the ol' Morse so it fried!) I gutted another morse console I got at the dump with a similar amp/tuner in it & EOL'd it & ended up installing the radio chassis in my Mom's cabinet & it worked, but had weak caps in it & sounded tinny, so it was never quite the same! LOL!
I remember seeing one of these on eBay brand new about a year ago . They where asking 600.00 bucks that model on eBay was a old stock soundesgin model console
I certainly like your choice of music better than that gospel stuff that is always found in these systems it seems. It doesn't have a bad sound for one of those "cheapo" 70's console units with only 6" speakers.
Tip screw that lid on that console. No matter what you do it will fall on your head or hands. To adjust it there is a screw inside the black shaft part. But most of the time the lid will break. Also that strip of metal on the back that says the name be careful it is glued on and well cut the heck out of your hands.
Cheap ..but I agree , beats Crosley junk hands down! Compared to Crosley those speakers are colossal! It's even wrapped in premium wood grain contact paper!😆
For what it is, not too bad. I would much rather have that AstroSonic you recently fixed. We had a late 70's or early 80's Midland, a 19" color portable it was not bad.
Fantastic video. I always like to see vintage equipment. I was wondering seriously if you would be interested in selling The Fixx 45 record of one thing leads to another. The Fixx is one of my favorite bands from the 1980s. I would pay as much as $5 for the record, and of course I realized that it would have shipping as well. Please let me know if the record is still available, and if you are interested in selling it. Thank you
I would do mods to these Radios to get the Marine Band 1.6 to 5mhz on the AM Band... also the VHF 108 to 163mhz on the FM Band....these were Cheap Pocket Radios in a Big Box... Horrible Sound for Music!!!
Hey there. Do you ever try to fix any 8-track tapes that give any problems? There are some UA-cam videos which show you the proper way to open & repair 8-track tapes & also the proper way to close each one back. Please feel free to look at some of those videos & let me know what you think.
Wards airline consoles used the same set up tuner and 8 track holder and bsr turntable. I had one only thing different was mine could record on 8 track. That unit could be from the early 80's the one I had was 1981. Junk in my book because of the speakers.
I have the same exact changer, and got everything working except for two problems. 1. The changer usually drops more than one record. 2. The auto drops the needle about 10 seconds in to the record. Neither are a big deal but I'd like to fix them. Any ideas on how I could do that?
O gabinete é muito bonito, mas os alto falantes são pobres assim como o radio amplificador o som não tem presença, não é forte! Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil
"It's better than a Crosley!" I wonder how many times those words
have been spoken. Cheers! 🍻 -Al
I love that one there ❤
I have that Ray Charles 8 track . Love that one
I have a soft spot for 8 tracks, they actually work very well once the cartridges are serviced. The best way to think of them is as a 1/4 inch reel to reel tape connected in a continuous loop inside a plastic shell. The tape speed is 3-3/4 inches per second so twice as fast as a compact cassette, so the fidelity is actually better if everything is working correctly.
Fidelity actually better? Better than cassettes manufactured late 60's to mid 70's, maybe, contemporary to 8 track's heyday. But later on tape formulation improved on the cassette format more than it did on the 8 track one (if it improved on the later at all), and that more than compensated the speed difference.
that's a BIG "if" Sir.
@@BilisNegra ...And that's exactly why 8-Tracks flourished during the period you describe. Cassette didn't start to sound good until they got better formulations and more advanced electronics. And, of course, even once they did, there were still a lot of people with big collections of 8-Tracks, which mean they were still buying 8-Track players, which meant they were still buying 8-Tracks when it came to music for the car. The tipping point, the mid-1970s, was right about the time their tapes and players were starting to wear out, and new 8-track tapes and equipment was cheap and nasty.
As Oleg stated, 8-Tracks could sound pretty good if maintained. The problem was, few people DID.
The dog doesn't seem to like 8 track tape one bit.🐕
When I was a kid just about everything in our house came from Western Auto .
That Jim Croce tape that you put in there it sounds like it just been recorded the problem is with these kids nowadays they don't know who Jim Croce is
7:29 WGN-TV Ch. 9 Chicago!
This is an old video, but fun fact for vintage audio enthusiasts on these mid 70's to early 80's Soundesign built consoles. They built them for a bunch of different companies at the time and would just change the aluminum trim piece on the back top border to have that companies brand name on them. Certain companies might have had exclusive cabinets, but the only branding change was that trim piece. Also Soundesign is still in business, but they go by SDI technologies these days and pretty much mainly market the iHome brand of smart speaker products.
Looks a lot like the soundesign My family had in the 70s. Our had record. It was nothing special as well.
my mom's sister had one just like they were sold at Western Auto a long time ago in a land far away😪💯👏❤ they were cheap but they sounded good and it is something still really nice to have in your room or your house🥳👏 hope you don't throw it away👌🏼 it had great Bass.
I consider that a treasure. We found one in our shed when we put money down on our house I live vintage things. And love the 80's.
Exact one I have but I have no clue why it stopped spinning
you always have such wonderful and interesting things to show us....you always explain thing so good its a pleasure to listen to you...its always good to watch you tinker with stuff and i love what you think of crosley record players....i have one but i dont use it ....i bought a wonderful steers 77 awhile ago from one of the guys on youtube i play it for hrs and hrs everyday its built like a tank... i look foward to see more of your stuff thankyou....
This is funny, those things were trash when they were new.
Yes this is better than a. Crossly
Soundesign and it's sister brand Realtone were low end quality stuff back in the late 60's and the 70's. I had a Soundesign bookshelf system briefly in the early 70's and it's tuner was terribly insensitive and prone to overload from a local FM station. I returned it to the store and got a display model Panasonic system for the same price. I have no regrets there, it was when Panasonic made quality stuff in Japan.
I actually like these bsr turntable sound is ok the cabinet is crap but the turntable is ok
That TV should clean up pretty well. Those older TV's are so reliable and have such a good picture once restored.
These console stereos were mostly owned by older people that were born in 20s and 30s which is why you find mostly gospel tapes and albums in these. Anyone that was into rock and roll usually wouldn't be caught dead with one of these console stereos, these were mostly great stereos though
That's some small speakers in that console. My mother had a console made by Electrophonic. It had twelve inch woofers and also midrange speakers and tweeters. I remember it had a lot of bass. It was so big.
I think the dog agrees on the purchase
턴테이블 고무 풀리를 구해야 하는데~~ 잘 보고 갑니다...
The working 8 track & stereo indicator light is a plus too. Mine were always defective. Lol..
2:50 Lot's of air; too bad they couldn't have made some of it available for record storage. One thing I've always said in defense of these things is that they sounded better than the "compact" table-top versions sold at the time with those awful tall, wide, shallow speaker enclosures. And with the speakers firing out the sides, there was as much stereo separation as most people get with separate speakers; modern TV and boombox makers could learn a bit from that. Plastic-fantastic!
We had the Soundesign version of this. It was marketed as "Tanglewood by Soundesign".
A BSR that runs at the proper speed. A rare find indeed.
That head unit might actually be ok if paired with larger efficient speakers and the power transformer upgraded so that the voltage don't sag under load.
It's been my experience that a lot of the cheap consoles suffered from a power supply just enough to do the job and crappy speakers.
Other than the plastic platter and most of the BSR record changers I've had dealings with running slightly too fast they are actually pretty decent changers for those who just want something to play their records on.
awesome
After CD's Came out I Ditched All
Cassettes & 8 Tracks wen I Found Out
I Was Able To Purchas CD's With
All Those Country Songs On Them.
Then In December Of 1996 I Got A Pioneer
Stereo With A 25 Disc CD Changer Player
For Christmas. & That's Wen I Bought
The Timelife Classic Country Collection.
I Dont Have The Stereo Now. But
Nor The Timelife Classic Country Collection.
But I Went On Amazon & Picked Up
A Whole Crap Load Of Timelife Classic Country CD's. I Have More Of Those Then I Did
Wen I Did Wen I Was Living At My Mom's
If She Could See All The Timelife
Classic Country CD's I Have Now Boy She'd Love That. Cause She Just Loved Classic Country Music. She Liked Hank William's Lefty Frizell
Web Peirce Ray Price kitty Wells
Ect.
We had the Soundesign version of this, I recognized the radio/8-track part immediately. Ours could record 8-track tapes.
I agree I was given a crolsey and gave it away...
I agree Rock N Roll.... I like the ToneCrest stereo from the 60's
The Jim Croce tape was the big win on this buy.
Geez, it seems like the BSR is on pitch. Can it be?
I was waiting for smoke to start coming out when Stevie and the 80;s rock began, and Motown to catch fire, you know how those Gospel Consoles are about secular "Devil Worship" music,,,Hallelujah!!!
Very beautiful find I love it
still better than a crosley
Alot of times you could connect quality extension speakers to the back ot these and get "4D" (four dimension) sound. That helped out the anemic console speakers a lot. The amps in these are quite good at lower volumes.
The reason you can't find many consoles with rock albums is because rockers wanted component sets or those with external speakers.
... and also because consoles usually get put out for yard sales before they end up in thrift stores and on the curb. Yard sales where the record collections get picked through, and all the 'good stuff' gets snatched up by collectors, even though the terribly large 'old school' stereos get ignored.
And, I can use my Jim and Tammy Faye 45 for record player demonstration.
This was really interesting to watch, you certainly got a good deal buying this for 25 dollars, i noticed you said you are not worrying about the lid to much, i might caution you if you dont already know it that the lid can suddenly come down on your head with no warning, i have a Philco stereo from the early 60s and it is made of real wood, and the lid will come down on my head if i do not hold the lid while i am tuning or adjusting something,and beleave me it hurts, hope this info helps you.
Love the channel
i would like to buy the midland tv how do i get ahold of you??
Big cabinet tends to resinate more then a small one giving extra bass. It was also a way for the company to justify its cost. Usually older people purchased these and needed room for pictures and a lamp. I like 70's stereos. They are so awful yet so much fun. Always work. Mine has a fireplace and a bar in it. 8 track tapes rule. A lot of the time the cross talk proplem is caused from pushed in pressure pads on the tape. When adjusting the head, first make sure you have a good pads on the tape.
Seems like you get a lot of Jimmy Swaggart.
You'll probably needs some WD-40 or some 3 in 1 oil to lubricate the turntable .
I'd be happy to find bluegrass gospel. Bluegrass just seems hard to find in general. That and badass old time music like Jimmie Rogers "the father of country music". The stuff he sang was very Rock and Roll.
Hey. I’m trying to restore a truetone that I picked up. Can you give me any pointers? We’ve checked things with a voltage meter and found the bad parts. We’re just not sure how to remove them or where to get them.
I have the same stereo console just different cabinet. 8 Track stopped switching though.
I had a console stereo that looked just like that. The only difference was that the speakers where mounted to the front and not the sides. It was a Montgomery Ward Airline.
I wonder if this was the first time This stereo has actually played Rock and roll records?
The only restore needed on that TV is contact cleaner. Awesome TV.
I didn't think 8 tracks worked without a matchbook wedged under them :)
Because the newest carts are often 30+ years old, the glue on the spices dries out and the can fall off, usually shortly after it crosses the contacts for the track changing solenoid, Columbia carts have the worst splices, RCAs the best. If you are very unlucky the spice will come off half way through the tape's travel causing a giant hairball.
the fixx! 5:55
The two weak spots was the splice and an intolerance for any dirt or foreign matter getting on the tape as it disrupts the movement of the tape. The best ones use felt pads and a silica bronze spring, many of the others use a foam pad which usually rots and falls apart. When the foam falls apart sometimes it gets sticky and works it's way onto the tap causing problems. Some others suffer from rotting pinch rollers, Ampex and GRT carts often have this problem, though not all.
On some rare 8-tracks, when they break at the seam (which is the track change foil), I've gone as far as to un-spool them, setup two turntables a 7-inch reel & hand wind them back together. If you do it backwards, you gotta start all over. Hours of fun. Then burn to a CD, sound file, or whatever, quick. P.S. Can't believe memory did not tell me that was Donna Summer on the 45...
Cassy must be YOUR dog as she seems to ALWAYS be in your videos, LOL! What was the 2nd to the last 45 you played? I like that one & don't think I have it! So not gonna EOL this one, huh? LOL! When I was growing up, our family stereo in the living room (which my Mom bought new from Gamble's dept. store) was a "Early American Dry Sink" cabinet Morse-brand AM/FM/8-Track/Phono w/ BSR changer & side-firing 8" full-range speakers with whizzer cones & that thing actually didn't sound too bad as I recall & my Mom had ALL of Jimmy Swaggart's 8-tracks & I grew up hearing them all the time playing in our house, LOL! Yeah, That stereo held up over the years great until I hooked 50' of speaker wire to the "B" speaker outputs so I could have music outside & it fried the outputs (with the resistance of 50' of thin "speaker wire" and the 12" speakers I hooked to the end of them was too much for the ol' Morse so it fried!) I gutted another morse console I got at the dump with a similar amp/tuner in it & EOL'd it & ended up installing the radio chassis in my Mom's cabinet & it worked, but had weak caps in it & sounded tinny, so it was never quite the same! LOL!
I remember seeing one of these on eBay brand new about a year ago . They where asking 600.00 bucks that model on eBay was a old stock soundesgin model console
I certainly like your choice of music better than that gospel stuff that is always found in these systems it seems. It doesn't have a bad sound for one of those "cheapo" 70's console units with only 6" speakers.
Yes Donna Summer is awesome. The record company sent me the 12" promo.
Tip screw that lid on that console. No matter what you do it will fall on your head or hands. To adjust it there is a screw inside the black shaft part. But most of the time the lid will break. Also that strip of metal on the back that says the name be careful it is glued on and well cut the heck out of your hands.
like all your videos keep up the great videos.....
Reason why you keep getting stereos with Gospel records or tapes it’s God speaking to you 😁
Or the fact not many people where he lives listen to stuff like The Sex Pistols or Barbra Streisand. 🤣
Cheap ..but I agree , beats Crosley junk hands down! Compared to Crosley those speakers are colossal! It's even wrapped in premium wood grain contact paper!😆
the timbre makes me think a Magnavox though
Cheap stuff but interesting info on who owns who.
It's in pretty good shape, so you can probably make a profit on it if you sell it.
I have one that is brand new haf it for few years with 43 records what do you think its worth
Looks like my Grandmother's 8 track cabinet system
For what it is, not too bad. I would much rather have that AstroSonic you recently fixed. We had a late 70's or early 80's Midland, a 19" color portable it was not bad.
Awesome
Fantastic video. I always like to see vintage equipment. I was wondering seriously if you would be interested in selling The Fixx 45 record of one thing leads to another. The Fixx is one of my favorite bands from the 1980s. I would pay as much as $5 for the record, and of course I realized that it would have shipping as well. Please let me know if the record is still available, and if you are interested in selling it. Thank you
I would do mods to these Radios to get the Marine Band 1.6 to 5mhz on the AM Band... also the VHF 108 to 163mhz on the FM Band....these were Cheap Pocket Radios in a Big Box... Horrible Sound for Music!!!
Hey there. Do you ever try to fix any 8-track tapes that give any problems? There are some UA-cam videos which show you the proper way to open & repair 8-track tapes & also the proper way to close each one back. Please feel free to look at some of those videos & let me know what you think.
Wards airline consoles used the same set up tuner and 8 track holder and bsr turntable. I had one only thing different was mine could record on 8 track. That unit could be from the early 80's the one I had was 1981. Junk in my book because of the speakers.
I think the Jimmy Lee tape should be used in all your 8-track demonstrations from here on out.
it looks like a microphone jack to the left of the 8-track player. did this also record blank 8-tracks?
Could be an earphone jack.
Are there still any analog broadcasts where you live? Those were gradually dropped 2007 to 2010 round here.
Hey there. Do you also repair 8-track tapes as well as 8-track players?
My uncle had one like that
That may be a good idea.
THe Fixx... Jr. Walker & Allstars
It's not bad; but not great either.
What song's that at 6:14? Sounds like Blondie, sorry I must sound a dumb-dumb for not knowing it.
Cheers
Donna Summer's 'This Time I Know it's For Real'. Late 80s Stock Aitken & Waterman crap. :)
This is a great record player
cool
It had great sound
I have the same exact changer, and got everything working except for two problems. 1. The changer usually drops more than one record. 2. The auto drops the needle about 10 seconds in to the record. Neither are a big deal but I'd like to fix them. Any ideas on how I could do that?
O gabinete é muito bonito, mas os alto falantes são pobres assim como o radio amplificador o som não tem presença, não é forte! Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil
I'd rather listen to Gospel music any old day.
Better than a Crossley is like saying better than trump.
Amen on the worst thing ever 8 track. :))
Particle board crap pile.
Boo Hoo. Wah Waah Waaah
Good ole Jimmy Swaggart
👿